Wednesday, November 27, 2013

So over the past few months we have been looking at investing into real estate again, we purchased our home, a multi-unit a little over a year ago, we were able to fix up the property using a contractor and have enjoyed having a touch of what we wanted in our unit, while still receiving rent to help with the mortgage. Because we have had success I was looking for ways to purchase more real estate, most likely buying and flipping the property(the shows on HGTV add to the mix) or even a buy and hold strategy to pay off the mortgage and get a little extra cash on the side each month.

Despite my enthusiasm and reading biggerpockets a real estate website for advice, the fact remained we needed a down payment for these homes and in most cases since the market we are looking in is mostly comprised of all cash investors. In a stroke of two worlds matching up, a family member was looking to invest and felt comfortable with our decision making, which would include there money expected to be paid back in full and our name being on the loan and ultimately responsible for both the loan and any money used in the transaction. So you can imagine my excitement, someone was willing to gamble on us in the real estate market. I was so excited, let's make some money, watch out Donald Trump, Richard Kyosoki ain't got nothing on me, I will own Chicago one house at a time!

REALITY hit just the other day. We have put multiple offers on properties, some low, some high, some all cash, some loan, most REO, but overall we are batting a big fat 0. I think the crushing blow came a couple weeks ago. We had previously submitted an offer on a house, the asking price was 181K and recently dropped to somewhere around 155K. We felt the right price for us was to get this property at just a touch below 140K, we submitted the offer and this was rejected through Homepath which is where the government sells many of the properties from mortgages that were previously backed by FHA mortgages. I was a little bummed out but we were on our way to San Francisco and I felt like we gave our best offer.

Then about a month later, I noticed the price had been dropped again to almost exactly what our original offer was, so I contacted our real estate professional to submit our offer again and even increased our bid a couple thousand over asking to make sure we put our highest and best offer to win the property. After more than a week we were told we did not win the property and later saw the house move to conditional, taking it off the market. That was the last time I have really been excited for a house and have decided it is best to focus in other areas where I enjoy my time more.

So today I am a Real Estate Loser, lost multiple bids, feels like have seen 50 houses in person to no avail. It's a little frustrating, but as my wife says if it were mean to be it would have happened. I think that I need to focus more on other avenues that I enjoy, including writing on the blog, my ebay store http://stores.ebay.com/GQ-Casual and my Shopify store gqcasual.com, which I just started in the past week or so. We are still on track for the 7 year retirement, paying off debt as we go, I really believe we can make it. Cheers and enjoy the read.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

I have been away from writing for awhile and due mostly to focusing on other items in my life. I found it best to use all of my focus on one item in my life to get the most production. This is what I refer to as Sprint and Relax.

So what have I been up to for the last 2 months? Well the most important thing was I did the 30 day Paleo Challenge. Paleo might be known better to you as the Caveman diet or the hunter-gatherer diet. Here is a general outline of what I ate for those 30 days, shown below, you can check out Robb Wolf's What is the Paleo Diet? for more info.

Ok to Eat Avoid

Fruits

Dairy

Vegetables

Grains

Lean Meats

Processed Food & Sugars

Seafood

Legumes

Nuts & Seeds

Starches

Healthy Fats

Alcohol

I really took this seriously, I ate almost to the tee the outline above, I don't eat that much bread anyways besides sandwiches,which is usually the most difficult item for people to give up, but that was easily replaced with lettuce or cabbage. Cheese or Dairy was probably the most difficult for me and after the 3rd week I ended up adding it back in. Like many lifestyle changes, you end up taking what you can't live without and I added cheese back in but went with a common theme in the paleo way of life to eat everything as natural as possible, just like your grandma used to make. So I added Kerrygold Swiss Cheese which is made from all natural grass-fed cows, I also did the same thing with butter, using the same brand.

I was able to lose around 15 pounds in those 30 days, which I am really proud of. My parents came to visit and I knew immediately I would take a little break from my Paleo lifestyle. Overall I have stuck with Paleo, many of the principals are easy to follow. If I am ever in doubt for any of the items I choose to eat or need a recipe, I can always check the Internet to confirm or for the most part if it's Gluten Free then it's good to go.

Losing weight and being healthy for me starts with Paleo. I did not go out of my way to exercise with the exception of walking my dog every day, so I think that's what made me feel great about this, I wasn't running 5 miles a day or lifting 3 days a week, I stuck with Paleo and it worked.

I think finance and fitness have so many of the same principals to winning. You have to eat healthy or be financially fit, no credit cards or ice cream, eat less than you need or don't spend more than you earn. So many of these things are exactly the same and exactly the reason why America is Obese and Broke. So try something different this week and bring all of your lunches or don't put sugar in your coffee this week, I think we all need to start somewhere and today is a good day.